What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking a deposition?
Deposition is the statement of a witness either on the side of the plaintiff or the defendant in a civil case.In a criminal case, deposition is the statement of a witness on the side of the prosecution.Generally deposition helps to bring out the truth and enlighten the judge on the actual facts of the case that leads to decide a case on the file of the court.
Advantages of deposition:
- It strengthens the case of the plaintiff or defendant in a civil case and the case of the prosecution in a criminal case.
- Since the deposition by a witness has evidentiary value in a civil or criminal case, it helps to decide and dispose of a case.
- The deposition by a witness is recorded and reduced into writing and so it becomes part and parcel of the records of the case.
Disadvantages of deposition:
- The deposition by a weak or inefficient witness weakens the case of the plaintiff or the defendant.
- A weak or false deposition by a witness may lead to the loss of the case for whom he or she deposes.
- It requires more efficiency, talent and legal acumen to cross examine and disprove a false witness.
Depositions, which normally consist of face-to-face questioning of the other party or a witness before trial, have several big advantages as compared to the other types of discovery mentioned above: You can offer a deposition transcript into evidence at trial if the deponent (the person questioned) is unavailable to give live testimony. This rule explains why you might consider deposing a helpful witness who may not be available to testify at the time of trial. If an adversary’s witness whose deposition you have taken testifies significantly differently at trial than at the deposition, you can read the inconsistent deposition testimony into the trial record to impeach (attack) the deponent’s credibility.